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Industrial Revolution/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are moving down a railroad track pumping a handcar. TIM: Hey, not so fast! MOBY: Beep. An animation shows a sheet of paper hitting Tim in the face. He stops pumping the handcar and reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, What was the Industrial Revolution all about? From, Marsha. The handcar continues rolling down the track as Moby pumps by himself. TIM: The period from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s is called the Industrial Revolution, because of all the technological advances made. Images show a steam engine, a cotton gin, a steamboat, a train, and a plane. TIM: A huge number of inventions during the 150-year period completely changed the way people lived and worked. There were two different revolutionary periods. They're called the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. A timeline displays the First Industrial Revolution. TIM: The first one covers the mid-1700s, all the way up to around 1850. It started in England with three major inventions. A map shows England. TIM: One was the steam engine, perfected by Scottish engineer James Watt. Steam power was used to quickly manufacture things that used to rely on manpower. An animation shows a steam engine pumping. An image shows James Watt. TIM: For example, the second major invention of this time, the powered loom. An image shows a large weaving loom. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, a loom is a machine that makes cloth out of thread. The new powered looms made cloth much, much faster than any person could. An image shows a large outdoor furnace. TIM: The third invention of this period was a new furnace for making steel. An image shows three coal miners, ready to go to work. TIM: England used its vast resources of coal to power these new machines. An animation shows two workers in a factory town. TIM: All these industries were centered in large towns and cities. People started leaving their farm jobs in the country to come work in the city, in factories. An animation shows African Americans picking cotton on a plantation. TIM: Meanwhile, cotton plantations in the Southern United States needed to keep up with the demand for raw materials from British cloth factories. TIM: So the American, Eli Whitney, invented the cotton gin. It picked seeds out of raw cotton much faster than a person could by hand. An image shows Eli Whitney and a cotton gin. An animation shows a worker at a conveyer belt on an assembly line. TIM: And in the northern U.S., factories pioneered the assembly line. The assembly line made it easier and faster to build things by making workers responsible for just one part of the process. Check out our Assembly Line movie to find out more. TIM: So that was the First Industrial Revolution. The second one covered the late 1800s, and it was led by the United States. For one, there were huge advances in transportation and communication with the railroad, telegraph, telephone, and steamship. Images show the inventions as Tim names them. TIM: These advances made it easier to transport goods and information. Without them, the world economy would never have grown the way it did. An image shows electrical poles and electrical lines. TIM: Another big area of improvement was the harnessing of electricity. This was a cheaper, more flexible power source than the steam engine. It led to the invention of the light bulb, trolleys, subways, the radio, and lots more. Images show the electrical inventions as Tim names them. TIM: The third advance was the use of scientific discoveries in making consumer goods. An image shows an early automobile. TIM: The automobile would never have been mass produced without this major shift in industrial thought. An image shows a field filled with oil wells. TIM: Of course, cars would never have been possible without the invention of commercial oil wells. The U.S. drilled lots of oil during the Second Revolution. By the time the twentieth century rolled around, the Industrial Revolution had changed Europe and the U.S. from farming societies to industrial societies. A timeline shows the years seventeen-fifty to nineteen-hundred. The years approaching nineteen-hundred are highlighted. An animation shows farms on a map of the United States and Europe being replaced by factories. Another image shows a well-dressed couple and a child standing in front of a nice home. TIM: Lots of new wealth was created, and a new class of society, the middle class, was born. An animation shows a factory and a car emitting smoke and fumes. TIM: Of course, burning all that coal and oil, there was quite a bit of pollution. In addition, social conditions didn't always get better. In many cases, they got worse. An image shows children working next to adults in a clothing factory. TIM: For instance, instead of going to school, children were expected to work more than ever, and for very little pay. And before laws were passed to regulate industry, many of the conditions inside factories could be both dangerous and, well, gross. Still, it really was an earth-shaking revolution. Almost every aspect of modern life has some connection to the Industrial Revolution. Tim and Moby's handcar goes into a dark tunnel. There is a loud train whistle. TIM: Uh-oh. The train whistle blows again. TIM: Faster, faster! They emerge from the tunnel and see the train as it passes them on a parallel track. TIM: Huh. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts